Richard A. Posner
Senior Lecturer in Law
1111 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
phone: 773-702-9608
email: tarak@uchicago.edu

Current Year Courses

• 49901 30 Independent Research
  Second- and third-year students may earn course credit by independent research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Such projects are arranged by consultation between the student and the particular member of the faculty in whose field the proposed topic falls.
  Autumn (3)
  
  
• 76602 1 Law and Science
  This seminar will explore the following question: how can the legal profession, and the legal system generally, cope with the legal and regulatory issues thrown up by the extraordinary advances, and rapidly growing complexity, of modern science? These issues include (a list by no means exhaustive): the litigation of tort suits involving subtle causal relations, and, more generally, the problem of "junk science" and of control of scientific expert witnesses; the role of juries in patent-infringement suits; the challenge to privacy and to intellectual property posed by digitization; the collision between civil liberties and efforts to prevent bioterrorism; the legal response to global warming and other profound environmental problems; the teaching of evolution and "creation science" in public schools; and the control of dangerous technologies. In short, what is the role of law, in its doctrinal, procedural, and institutional aspects, in relation to modern science? To what extent should the legal system seek to control science? Should science be left to scientists? Must lawyers know science? A background in science is not required for enrollment in the seminar. Very short papers will be due each week, but a student who wants substantial writing credit may substitute a long paper for the short papers. Enrollment is limited to 30.
  Winter (3) b
  
  
• 95922 1 Greenberg Seminar: Shakespeare and the Law
  We will read and discuss a group of plays of Shakespeare that have legal connections, including Measure for Measure, Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice, and others to be determined by the group. We will meet twice in each of the three quarters, alternating between Posner's home and Nussbaum's. Our last meeting will be an informal play reading, with casting done by students (though the professors are willing to act!). We therefore encourage applicants who have experience in theatre, and they should indicate this background when applying. Interested students need to contact the instructors (martha_nussbaum@law.uchicago.edu and Richard_Posner@ca7.uscourts.gov) by September 4 with a short statement explaining why they want to take the class.
  Autumn (1) a
  
  

Other courses taught include:

• History of Legal Thought
• Advanced Antitrust
• Evidence
• Legal Prgamatism: Three Perspectives